Vulcan (mirror)
:For the Vulcan homeworld, see: Vulcan. | Environmental = warm Class M conditions | Warp capable = 1440 AD | Affiliation = Terran Empire Terran Republic Klingon-Cardassian Alliance Galactic Commonwealth | Lifespan = 200 years | Sexes = male, female | Racial = varied skin and eye coloration | Distinctive Features = pointed ears and eyebrows | Telepathy = touch telepathic | Blood = green (copper-based) | Borg = | altimage = |}} In the mirror universe, the Vulcans are a humanoid species native to the planet . History Ancient history In the ancient past, the Vulcans were a warlike, highly emotional people. Constant warfare between nations, clans, and ideological groups kept the arid soil of the planet Vulcan green the with the blood of the vanquished. during the 4th century, an unflinching dictator named arose. He proclaimed a new day in Vulcan history by introducing the discipline of logic and emotional restraint. Armed with logic, the Vulcans would live in an orderly society. They would fight others, if need be, but not other Vulcans. Rejecting this doctrine were the followers of , a philosopher who argued that a people who discarded their anger, recklessness and sense of vengeance made themselves ideal targets for conquering savages. Order was a virtue, Tellus howled, but logic was not. He and his people fled the planet. They eventually became the people. ( ) Conflicts with the Romulans From then on, the two groups would engage in periodic warfare. The Vulcans considered it illogical to allow a sworn enemy to live, while the Romulans still wished to prove Tellus right by destroying the Vulcans. None of their wars proved decisive, although the most recent one, from 1939 to 2041, did more damage to Vulcan than to the Romulan Star Empire. ( ) Joining the Terran Empire In 2063, the Vulcan survey ship detected a Terran warp signature created by 's ship, the , and followed it to . However, the Vulcan ship was not actually a peaceful scientific survey vessel, but was instead a spy ship designed to scout out places where the Vulcans might emotionlessly harness and exploit natural resources to their own benefit. ( ) Upon landing at the settlement in Bozeman, Montana from where the Phoenix had been launched, , the captain of the T'Plana-Hath, was the first to exit the vessel and meet Zefram Cochrane. However, after Solkar gave the traditional Vulcan salute, Cochrane pulled out a shotgun and killed him. He then rallied the rest of the townspeople to board the vessel, appropriate any item of value and kill the rest of the crew. This action resulted in the early expansion of the Terran Empire, allowing Terrans to drastically increase their technological capability and begin a campaign of interstellar warfare and conquest. ( ) The new Empire's unified attempt to build an invasion of Vulcan ultimately failed, as the Vulcans arrived en masse with a proposal. Believing that Terra would be too difficult to conquer easily and could not, in turn, fight the technologically superior Vulcans without both sides sustaining atrocious losses, the Vulcans offered themselves up as vassals rather than full partners. The exact reason for this decision in unknown, some believed that the Vulcans joined the Empire out of a sense of weakness and self-preservation, while others believed that the Vulcans decided they could easily manipulate the impulsive Terrans as the true powers behind the throne. The decision could also possibly have been influenced by the Vulcans' military setbacks suffered during their most recent war with the . Regardless of the Vulcans' motivation, the two races subsequently joined together to exploit nearby pre-warp cultures and the natives of Alpha Centauri. ( ) Vassals of the Terran Empire In 2074, the Empire conquered Alpha Centauri. Over the next several decades, Vulcans and Terrans joined together to strip the planet of anything vaguely valuable. This included the majority of the population, who were enslaved en masse. ( ) By the 2150s, Vulcans served as crew members aboard numerous Terran Empire ships, including the and . However, various Vulcans had also joined in a rebellion against the Empire, which also included at least some s and s. In 2155, the Commander and Crewman led the other non-Terran crewmembers on board the Avenger in a mutiny in an attempt to destroy the , a Federation ship that had crossed over into their universe through an interphasic rift created by the s. However, the mutiny failed when the power systems of the Defiant were reinitialized by Commander , allowing the Defiant to destroy the Avenger. ( ) Later that year, Vulcan rebels intercepted the transport of Empress , who had managed to become Empress by taking command of the Defiant after poisoning Captain , after she had been betrayed by and was exiled to . Sato was held prisoner, and then put on trial for the crimes of the Empire against its subject worlds. However, Sato was able to strike a deal with one of the rebels, and her former Enterprise crewmate, T'Pol. Although T'Pol had joined in the rebellion against the empire, she switched sides after uncovering a plot to murder her by fellow rebel , whom T'Pol would eventually kill. By helping Sato escape the rebels and helping reclaim the Empire from Shran's Andorian forces, the Vulcans were raised to a status equal to that of Terrans and T'Pol was appointed as the first Supreme Regent of Vulcan. ( |Age of the Empress}}) ''Star Trek: Mirror Universe Due to the Terran Empire's fear of telepathic species, who were regarded as a threat and were exterminated, the Vulcans therefore kept their abilities a secret. When began his attempt to restructure the Empire, his followers used mind melds to spread his vision to all Vulcans. This vision, and the telepathic contact that supported it, endured when the Empire fell, and made the Vulcan slaves used by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance a vast spy network, biding its time. Following Spock's rise to power as the emperor of the Terran Empire, Vulcan played a vital role in his plans for the survival of the empire's people. In 2280s and 2290s, using both Captain and the Vulcan mind-meld, Spock created a number of sleeper agents throughout the planet's population who not only saw the empire as doomed, but whose main purpose was to bring about the fall of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance once it came to conquer and dominate Vulcan and Earth. Events on Vulcan during the latter days of the empire did not go unnoticed by the empire's neighbors. Using spies and infiltrators, the Romulans became aware of what appeared to be a growing pacifist movement on the planet. As far as the Romulans could tell, the movement was not a government sponsored initiative, but was grass-roots in nature with members seeking out their family and friends. With the rise of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, ships came to Vulcan and exported large portions of its population to serve as slaves. Those exported included Saavik and the sleeper agents. ( |The Sorrows of Empire}}; |The Mirror-Scaled Serpent}}) In the year 2378, following the signing of the Tripartite Armistice between the Terran Rebellion and the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, Vulcan, along with more than two dozen other worlds, was freed from Alliance control and was formally ceded to the newly formed Galactic Commonwealth. The Vulcans subsequently joined the organization. ( |Rise Like Lions}}) Through a Glass, Darkly Reign of T'Pau , who had been a minor diplomatic official at the time of first contact, would eventually become Vulcan's head of state. It was through her actions and her ability to manipulate one Emperor after another that allowed Vulcan to be both a vassal world within the empire and yet maintain some of its autonomy. Initially T'Pau lured emperors into her bedchamber through her own charms, but then later used a cadre of seductresses in the Imperial Palace to sway and influence the empire's officials. Her agents were equally adept at wielding psionic powers and had access to a huge collection of ancient Vulcan poisons which alluded medical detection. By the 23rd century, T'Pau, the reclusive mistress of Vulcan, lived in a citadel on the Plain of Tai-La. Its roofs had gleaming liquid ludugial gold held into place by force fields. There were also musk-scented corridors, secret passageways, spy holes, a treasury and a torture chamber. Throughout the huge complex walked servants, many of whom had had their eyes or tongues cut out. Those who were blind moved about through clairvoyance. T'Pau's minions, of whom only a fraction consisted of Vulcans, were everywhere. Although Would-be lackeys came from the far corners of the Galaxy to willingly offer themselves to her, body and soul, T'Pau snared just as many unwilling servitors through blackmail, mind control, and outright coercion. The dungeons of her citadel held dozens of people hostage, whose family members would serve T'Pau in hope of earning their freedom. It was believed by some that her network of conspirators shaped every significant event within the Empire. Others, although wisely fearful of her, denied her quite that degree of omnipresence. The Vulcans followed T'Pau because it was considered logical to obey the strongest leader, as such leaders brought order, without which there could be no logic. By the same token, they claimed that it was eminently logical to follow an obviously superior empire, rather than be conquered. ( ) Spock's coup In 2268, Spock, who had become captain of the after killing , used an anti-matter bomb to kill a giant space amoeba that threatened to destroy the Vulcan-crewed . Its captain, Yevok, reasoned that Spock had to succeed T'Pau as ruler of Vulcan. Yevok returned to Vulcan and recruited other minions of T'Pau to form cells in preparation for an eventual coup. By 2281, Spock and Yevok, who had become the new Vulcan ambassador, had built up the Vulcan Underground by securing a commitment from hundreds of T'Pau's minions to switch sides when the time was right. However, Spock was betrayed by , who had become jealous after Spock went through ''Pon farr and mated with Yevok's sister, T'Jal. Kovacs, still privy to Spock's secrets, traveled to Vulcan and revealed his treachery to T'Pau, who then sent assassins to kill Spock, Yevok, and Emperor Alex Danaher. Only Spock survived. Afterwards, Spock rallied his frightened Senators and convinced them that it was time to free the Empire from T'Pau's dreadful influence. Following the ascension of Emperor John Cray, T'Pau was declared by him to be an enemy of the Empire and four Inquisition-class starships were sent to bombard her citadel on the Vulcan Plain of Tai-La. Although the citadel was destroyed, T'Pau's body was not found among its wreckage. Using information gathered by Yevok's underground, Imperial Security teams staged simultaneous, Empire-wide raids, arresting or killing hundreds of members of T'Pau's spy network, with only her closest aides escaping. T'Pau escaped into Romulan space and, operating from several bases there, launched a series of attacks against the Empire disguised as random opportunistic pirate attacks. The Romulans neither hindered her nor fought by her side. However, she received aide from the Metrons, who lent her the bulk of their Gorn fleet. Eventually, Imperial intelligence sources discovered T'Pau's whereabouts and engaged her forces. From 2283 to 2285, Starfleet fought T'Pau's Vulcan loyalists and Gorn warriors. Her forces struck guerilla-style, quickly hitting shipping lanes, starbases and colonial installations, and then retreating to hidden bases salted throughout the Romulan frontier. Attempts to chase them down put Starfleet in confrontation with Romulan vessels defending their airspace. Upon learning that T'Pau's pirates had occupied the Imperial research base on Regula I, where Dr. and her son had been overseeing the Empire's top-secret Genesis Weapon project, Spock and the surviving members of the Kirk-era Enterprise crew commandeered the Enterprise and battled T'Pau and a complement of slavering Gorn for control of the weapon. Eventually, Spock ended up alone in the weapon chamber with T'Pau and Magda Kovacs. Kovacs, equipped with an exoskeleton that gave her twice the strength of Spock, fought him hand-to-hand, seeking blood repayment for her romantic disappointment. However, T'Pau was mortally wounded after suffering an accidental blow from Kovacs' exo-suit. In the course of the fight, the Genesis Weapon was activated and aimed at the uninhabitable planet of Ceti Alpha V. Kovacs fell into the beam and was scattered to atoms, with the beam feedback destroying the weapon. A triumphant Spock demonstrated to a dying T'Pau the illogic of her plans, but was then himself slain by phaser fire, which had been fired by David Marcus, the illegitimate son of Captain Kirk, in revenge for Spock's murder of his father. However, Spock was later resurrected by the revivifying energy of the Genesis Effect on Ceti Alpha V. ( ) Conquest by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance With the rise of the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, Vulcan, like Earth, was subjected to a planetary bombardment. What little surface water the planet had boiled away under the heat of Klingon disruptors. After coming under Alliance control, Vulcan became a prison planet where members of the Terran Rebellion, dissidents, and pirates were sent to allow its desolate surface conditions to determine the fate of the prisoner. Those who were sent to Vulcan sometimes fought to the death for what little water could be found in the planet's few remaining cities. The unrelenting thirst caused by Vulcan's desolate conditions drove some prisoners to drink the blood of those they had killed. Despite the conditions on the surface, the Vulcans never abandoned their homeworld. What's more, they continued to run most of criminal gangs who dominated the planet's population. Alliance officials chose not to bother with any form of warden station and simply monitored the planet from orbit to ensure those sent to Vulcan never left. ( ) Vulcan Resistance By the 2370s, Rebellion forces on Vulcan contained a mixture of native Vulcans and prisoners sent to the planet as punishment. , a former member of the Vulcan underworld who rebelled when the Alliance killed her lover, Saynok, served as the de facto leader of the resistance. Appealing to the renowned logic of her people, Selar convinced many of them that they could not only free themselves from the rule of the Alliance, but thanks to their mental and physical superiority could triumph over the Terrans and establish their own empire. Realizing that becoming trapped on Vulcan would spell the end of the Rebellion there, Selar managed to steal several ships. These vessels stayed within or near the Vulcan system and made raids into the interior, sometimes even down to the surface of Vulcan itself to free more Vulcans and slaves. Over the course of several years, Selar's forces had grown to the point where she had to form cells and establish sub-leaders, something she loathed but could not prevent. She watched her sub-leaders cautiously, knowing each of them covetted her job for themselves. ( ) Society Business Although Vulcans found the Terran sense of logic to be deeply flawed in many ways, they did see a cold and satisfying geometry in the structures of Terran corporations. Following first contact, Vulcans would build a number of business enterprises capable of competition with any Earth equivalent. The one that truly captured the imagination was Tal-Shaya Partners, a banking empire that financed everything from starbase construction to assassination schools. Discussing collateral with a Vulcan was regarded to be "uniquely terrifying". Unusually, Tal-Shaya was still run by its founder, the Vulcan philosopher , by the 23rd century. His then-recent tome of financial advice, Infinite Profit in Infinite Diversity, would complete at least three years as the Galaxy’s best-selling business book. ( ) Trivia *Prior to the airing of "In a Mirror, Darkly" in 2005, several theories were put forth to explain how mirror universe Vulcans became what they were. The Best of Trek #14 suggests Surak died as an infant. Consequently, the Vulcans never adopted a way of logic and peace. Diane Duane basically used this viewpoint in her novel Dark Mirror. The Mirror Universe Trilogy had Vulcan adopt Surak's teachings, but at first contact with Earth in 2063 advanced knowledge of the Borg threat, causing both Earth and Vulcan to adopt a militaristic approach to space. The Mirror Universe Saga approach was similar, except the catalyst for the formation of the Terran Empire was Earth's losing the war with Romulus in the 2150s and embarking on a path of conquest after overthrowing the Romulans a decade later, with the Vulcans following Earth's lead. External links * * Category:Vulcans Category:Races and cultures Category:Beta Quadrant races and cultures Category:Humanoid species Category:Mirror universe races and cultures